General Chat

There was once a disciple of a great teacher. Day after day the disciple would sit at the feet of his teacher listening to his instruction. Many people would come to visit and inevitably the teacher would engage them by telling a story.

One day the disciple asked; "Guruji, why do you engage people by means of stories? Why don't you just give them your teaching straight out?"

The guru answered: "Bring me some water."

Now the disciple knew his teacher to be a very formal and disciplined man. He had never asked for water at this time of the day. Nevertheless, he went immediately to fetch it. Taking a clean brass water pot from the ashram kitchen, the disciple went to the well, filled the pot with water and returned. He offered it to his teacher.

"Why have you brought me a pot when I asked only for water?"

The moral of this story…

We share with others the lessons we have learned. We provide you with a banquet of various tastes and styles. It is up to you to choose that dish which you find most palatable.

The worst part is that I really do understand the need for using stories in teaching. It is the difference between knowing something intellectually and knowing it through experience: if it is just another piece of knowledge it can't change the way a person thinks or behaves. Stories are a way of sharing an experience instead.

For what it is worth, at least I (probably) wouldn't take a picture of Guruji after dumping a pitcher of water on him. Or her. The story only uses pronouns for the student but not Guruji.

"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see." --- Ayn Rand

It is correct at some point of line of understanding.... I would convey that an experience can be shared by stories, but stories are not only for those...

The Guru has described the correct way to bringing water for someone, which we already know, and are doing the same... If someone asks us to bring water, we dont bring that in our hands..

Now why stories, and what is the link of this example? It needs to be understood..

Just like we bring water in a glass for our guests and other people on asking of water only... the same way (most of the time) knowledge cannot be explained directly to disciples otherwise this would become very tough to understand by them...

A good teacher always shares good examples in terms of stories, poems, etc. so that his/her students could understand the subject better. This is the way of teaching...We teach English rhymes in pre-nursery and nursery why dont we teach tenses directly? We teach one-two...buckle my shoe.. to small kids why dont we teach summation directly.... even for summation we teach examples to them, why? These are not experiences, but a method of learning.... as we know the kids cannot grasp at this level and their brain is in growing stage...

The same thing is here, if we learn something in terms of stories, our brain remembers that for more time than we remember directly...

Here, I would also like to give example of Sir Isaac Newton's famous story of apple. Newton himself often told the story that he was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree. But wikipedia says it is a myth... it may be myth or real... but it is very easy to understand the gravitational force of earth by reading this story...

Good examples (mostly in terms of story, etc.) provide better shape to understand theories and learning, the Guru has conveyed water should be in glass not in hands, which is the same...

Water cannot be drunk without glass or other pot and good learning cannot happen without good examples...

This story tells this only, I apologize, I did write so many lines, as you are a great healer and understand everything already...

Giving lessons in stories or parables (like Christ) allows the mind to understand more fully and can see how it is applied — almost like experiencing the lesson itself. If you tell someone the lesson outright, they will ether consider it and reject it or have to take it by faith. If you simply take someone's word by faith, can you truly understand it completely? Or do you learn more fully if you experience it yourself, ether personally or by proxy (for example, seeing it happen to someone else or hearing an example in a story )? This makes stories and parables a very useful tool in teaching. Thank you for your post!